Published 10:00 pm, Monday, November 22, 2004

As the controversies surround voting systems in this past election continue to swirl, many of us have been left with two questions: 1) Didn't we take care of this after Florida in 2000? 2) What can we do about it now?

The first question is an issue for another day. Instead, I think it's important to focus on what we can do to restore faith in our electoral process in future elections.

From our Oregon perch, we have looked on the controversies surrounding voting in Florida, Ohio and elsewhere with a mixture of bemusement and horror because we do things very differently here.

We vote entirely by mail. Polling places do not exist and Election Day is merely a deadline to turn in your ballot. It's been that way since 1998 when nearly 70 percent of Oregonians approved the Vote by Mail initiative.

When I have mentioned our voting system to friends elsewhere, I have been met with an uncomprehending blank stare followed by a comment to the effect "You Oregonians sure seem to like to do things differently ... "

They are right; we do our voting differently because Oregonians have discovered that Vote by Mail is the most effective, efficient and fraud-free way to conduct an election.

At its core Vote by Mail works and is wildly popular because it returns control of the act of voting to the place it belongs: the voter. As a voter, you know when to expect your ballot in the mail, you decide when and how you want to mark your ballot and you decide when you want to turn it in (as long as it is in by 8 p.m. on Election Day).

Oregon's Vote by Mail system is simple and straightforward. Ballots are mailed 14 to 18 days before an election to the registered address of the voter; the voter has two weeks to return the ballot through the mail or by dropping it off at official drop-off sites. The voter must sign the outside of the envelope (the ballot is sealed in a separate envelope inside) and that signature is checked against the signature on file with the elections division.

Education: People have time to study issues and candidates before voting.

Fraud protection: It has built-in safeguards that increase the integrity of the elections process.

Built-in paper trail.

Voter eligibility: Built-in time to resolve disputes.

Actual results are released when polls close as opposed to unreliable "exit polls."

Financial: It saves money.

For these reasons and because it simplifies the entire process for officials in charge of our elections systems, Vote by Mail is now, more than ever, the system to restore confidence in our election process.

While the idea of the polling place at your local elementary school is something that provokes nostalgia in many of us, the realities of modern life as well as the demands on election officials outstrips any nostalgia we may feel for voting at a polling place.

Nationally, Americans made their preference clear this month. Voters are growing increasingly comfortable with and demanding alternative ways of casting their ballots. We saw this with the massive expansion of early voting and absentee voting.

Isn't the true definition of "democracy in action" one where the mechanism for casting ballots advantages the voter, not the system set up to count the ballots? Is it not time for a national system where everyone who is eligible and chooses to vote can, and we know that every vote has been counted?